Police probe attack on publisher while another one denies involvement

AN order is out for the Police Regional Office (PRO) 6 to conduct an immediate investigation on the brazen attack against the The Daily Guardian publisher.

Issued by the region’s top cop, PRO 6 Regional Director C/Supt Cipriano Querol Jr., the probe is aimed at unmasking the personalities behind the attempt on veteran journalist Lemuel Fernandez.

In a PRO 6 news release, Querol said Task Force Guardian will be formed “to focus on the probe that will lead to the identification and arrest of the assailant/s” of Fernandez.

This early, the investigators stated that not discounted is the possibility that the attack was work-related.

“His (Fernandez) newspaper tackles very sensitive issues and it is not remote that they have aggrieved some people,” Querol said while adding that the investigators will also fast track the big issues being reported by The Daily Guardian for these reports may provide lead in the probe.

Pending the probe, Querol also said that at least two uniformed personnel will be provided to Fernandez to temporarily serve as his security escorts.

Neophyte publisher issues ‘boxing match’

Mano a mano, anyone? While at it, any takers to a challenge for an all-expense paid fistfight?

If you are not gay or hermaphrodite and has issues against a certain Rommel Ynion, you can be a qualified contender.

Announced over Bombo Radyo Iloilo yesterday, the message was heard from the man himself. This, after anchorman Don Dolido reached out to Ynion primarily to get his reaction on the attack made against The Daily Guardian publisher Lemuel Fernandez.

Ynion is supposed to be the current president of the Iloilo Press Club (IPC) and the proclaimed chairman and publisher of another local daily.

Disclosing that he just woke up when he heard the news over Bombo Radyo, Ynion began his statement saying, “Well…we will give Lemuel Fernandez financial assistance if he needs it…” Momentarily thereafter though, he backtracked saying Fernandez might take the offer as offensive since after all, the TDG publisher “is well-off.”

In the course of the interview, Dolido asserted alleged insinuations that competition in the news industry could have caused the attack against Fernandez. Dolido then went ahead to name Ynion’s paper versus TDG that generated the challenge for a duel.

“Do not irritate me,” Ynion warned, “and do not make such insinuations,” he said in the Bombo Radyo interview. Best yet, why not settle any and all issues over a fistfight? He will even pay for it and yes, in Ynion’s book, worthy of a fight against him are non-gays and non-hermaphrodites.

To note, Ynion is the only press club president or press personality ever heard to offer his physical might to settle issues. On air, too.

An apparently surprised Dolido tried to lighten up the interview by saying that “in fairness,” maybe Ynion only said such “as a figure of speech”.

Incidentally, not heard from the Ynion interview was the IPC condemnation of the attack while major media groups here have jointly denounced the incident.

Prior to Ynion’s grand entrance to Iloilo news industry, his known claim was that he was a former Obituary-Editor of a national paper. He was also purportedly the man who edited the pieces of well-known and respected editor, columnist and publisher Max Soliven.